Five years after locals petitioned for permanent water taxis on Lake Whakatipu, Otago Regional Council (ORC) said the service had secured a long-term operator in Watersports Ltd.
ORC said the ferries, which previously ran on a trial basis, would now run hourly from 8.15am to 9.45pm across Lake Whakatipu.
In July, when Watersports took the helm, ORC said late night sailings had also expanded to seven nights a week instead of three.
Council transport implementation lead Julian Phillips said he hoped the ferries would become an anchor of the local public transport network.
“We’re pretty confident that the service will go from strength to strength with community support… a service that locals rely on every day, and visitors look forward to experiencing,” he said.
Watersports co-owner Iraj Barabi said his company would be adding a new boat to the service from next year and also exploring new routes to Homestead Bay and Queenstown Airport.
“We want ferry services to be a preferred option rather than just an option,” he said.
Otago Regional Councillor Alexa Forbes said councillors and the community had been pushing for a permanent service for years and she strongly urged the people of Kelvin Peninsula to embrace the new Orbus Ferries.
The process of securing permanent ferry services for Queenstown had been “choppy waters, to say the least”, which had not been helped by the government’s removal of half-price public transport fares, she said.
“I was delighted to see Iraj pick up this business because I knew that he has the tenacity to hang in there and make it last, make it work,” Forbes said.
“Watersports has the energy and investment commitment to make a difference… and support the use of the lake as a blue highway.”
ORC said fares remained at $10 per adult, per trip, with a Bee Card.
There were 71,123 passenger trips on the Queenstown ferries for the 2024/25 financial year.
After half-price fares ended in 2023, ORC’s general manager of regional planning and transport Anita Dawe said passenger numbers had dipped, but by 2025 boardings from January to July were up 4 percent compared with the previous year.
Barabi said in the month after late night services were added, ridership rose 9 percent.
– Katie Todd, Otago/Southland reporter for Radio New Zealand
